Many retirees have to pay taxes on the Social Security benefits. Here's how to plan for it

January 29, 2017

To get Social Security retirement benefits, you have to work for at least 10 years, and therefore many retirees see their Social Security checks as something they’ve earned. Yet that doesn’t stop Uncle Sam from taking its cut of your benefits in the form of income taxes.

Not everyone on Social Security has to pay tax, but those who do can end up having to include as much as 85% of their benefits as taxable income on their tax returns. Below, we’ll look more closely at how taxation of Social Security works and just how much the typical American ends up having to include on their tax returns.